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How’ve you been? Oh, really? You should probably see a doctor about that.

We’ve had a quiet time of it up here recently as everyone’s been sitting on the sofa watching people in London dancing around on horses, diving into pools, and running for nine seconds, while ironically becoming more unfit themselves. The Olympics was good wasn’t it? A real tear-jerker. Well, not for everyone. Melancholic miserablist Morrissey vented his frustration at the 2012 games while playing a sold-out show at Manchester Arena.

He attacked the ‘blustering jingoism’ of London 2012, leaving many shocked, some appalled, but the majority confused and bewildered as to what exactly he was going on about. Morrissey can now add the games to his ever-growing list of things to despise – George Alagiah, Elton John, Band Aid, dance music, and Chinese people all having been the subject of his hatred before.

On the same night previous Clash Track Of The Day act Coves were in town playing their first Manchester show at The Castle. Their recent EP ‘Cast A Shadow’ came out earlier in the year and is easily one of the best offerings we’ve heard from a new band. While sounding incredible on CD they’re even better live – psychedelic visuals lit up the darkened room while the group delivered a mixture of brazen guitar strumming and sassy vocals to the crowd. Going up against Morrissey is no mean feat, but they completely pulled it off with a spectacular set despite blustering weather leading to a leak inside the venue.

Manchester veterans Plank! released their debut album ‘Animalism’ recently and held their album launch show at Soup Kitchen, an understated name for what is fast becoming one of the hottest places to catch live music. The album received 8/10 in the magazine so of course we popped down to see them and Leeds’ Hookworms in action. Read our review by Anne Louise Kershaw here.

GREATWAVES released their debut single, ‘The Shore’ , via local label Sways, on 23rd July. They’ve been gathering steam with plenty of shows in the city, including the ‘New Sounds Of The North’ gig in a disused office block on the same bill as Alt-J and Money. The brilliantly named duo – David De Lacy and Oliver Ocean – (yes that’s right Oliver Ocean, what a name) are from Liverpool and London respectively but have been adopted as one of the city’s most exciting emerging acts. Have a listen to the swirling synth layers and tranquil vocals below and let us know what you think in the comments section.

http://soundcloud.com/mrmanini

A new Releases was also been unveiled this month by self-announced purveyors of twiddly-babe-pop Tribal Fighters, a melodic three-piece with no lyrics in their music! Controversial. Also new offerings by Temple Songs, and the even more amazingly named Base Ventura (Ket Detective) have emerged. Both bands played on the bill for Twisted Tape records earlier this month. Temple Songs have reworked the Beatles classic Sgt Pepper on cassette while Base Ventura brought out their debut EP on the same format. Just have a watch of Base Ventura’s new video for 1:52. All the glorious aspects of a great British night out are summed up in this short film. Danny Boyle couldn’t have done it better himself…

Saving the best until last, the big news is that Clash itself will be coming to Manchester! On 6th October we’ll be hosting our first ever Issue Launch Party here with Jim Noir kicking things off by launching his album at Deaf Institute. For just £6 you can see Jim perform tracks from his upcoming record ‘Jimmy’s Show’, plus Silverclub, and City Reign, AND get your hands on the new issue of Clash before it hits the shelves. You’d be a lunatic to miss out on that! Join the facebook event page here to keep up to date with shenanigans. There’s a couple of other things we should mention while you’re here. On 19th October Northern Noise will be hosting Novella at Sound Control, again tickets are only £6 and you can get them here. O Children will be coming to Kraak Gallery in October too, so check them out. Anyway that’s enough blustering jingoism for one day. See you next time.